World Cup 2006 Qualifiers...

[Famine]

Well done Scotland (2-1 win away in Norway, after a 1-1 home draw with Italy). Hard luck Wales (1-0 away loss to Poland, after a 1-0 home loss to England).

And...

WELL DONE NORTHERN IRELAND. You were cack, but England were cacker. At least one person on the pitch knew that to score a goal you have to hit the ball toward the goal and keep it on target first.

I nearly farted laughing when Sven's masterplan substitution was to bring off Steven Gerrard and replace him with Owen "Step over step over whoops I lost it" Hargreaves.

Edit: Here's a little list of the teams which have qualified for WC2006, in the order they qualified:

Hosts

Germany
8/6/05

Japan (Asia Zone, Group 2 winners)

Iran (Asia Zone, Group 2 2nd)

Saudi Arabia (Asia Zone, Group 1 winners)

South Korea (Asia Zone, Group 1 2nd)

Argentina (South American Zone, 2nd in group)
3/9/05

Ukraine (Euro Zone, Group 2 winners)

USA (North America Zone, Group 1st in group)
4/9/05

Brazil (South American Zone, 1st in group)
7/9/05

Mexico (North America Zone, 2nd in group)
7/10/05

Togo (African Zone, Group 1 winners)

Ghana (African Zone, Group 2 winners)

Cote d'Ivoire (African Zone, Group 3 winners)

Angola (African Zone, Group 4 winners)

Tunisia (African Zone, Group 5 winners)

Paraguay (South American Zone, 4th in group)

Ecuador (South American Zone, 3rd in Group)

Costa Rica (North America Zone, 3rd in Group)
8/10/05

Holland (Euro Zone, Group 1 winners)

Portugal (Euro Zone, Group 3 winners)

Italy (Euro Zone, Group 5 winners)

Croatia (Euro Zone, Group 8 winners)

Poland (Euro Zone, Edit: Group 6 2nd, 1 of 2 highest-scoring 2nd place teams)

England (Euro Zone, Edit: Group 6 winners)
12/10/05

Sweden (Euro Zone, Group 8 2nd, 1 of 2 highest-scoring 2nd place teams)

France (Group 4 winners)

Serbia & Montenegro (Group 7 winners)
16/11/05

Australia (beat

Uruguay in OFC/CONMEBOL play-off 4-2 on penalties, 1-1 on aggregate)

Trinidad & Tobago (beat

Bahrain in AFC/CONCACAF play-off, 2-1 on aggregate)

Switzerland (beat

Turkey in UEFA play-off on away goals, 4-4 on aggregate)

Spain (beat

Slovakia in UEFA play-off, 6-2 on aggregate)

Czech Republic (beat

Norway in UEFA play-off, 2-0 on aggregate)


Total - 32/32 places confirmed.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Sven is on drugs, me and my dad were laughing also when Hargeaves came on, i mean wtf, he had 2 left sided players, a right sided player and 3 strikers on in the end! I mean dude wtfs that about.

That Kenny Miller for scotland is looking good, Scotland finally coming to form. Needed Wales to beat Poland really after losing to NIr.

 

[daan]

Yay!

 

[MagpieRacer]

Go away Jock

 

[Lenjia]

A little bit off the subject but still about football, I am so glad that Fox Soccer Channel finally got the hint and are now showing the Italian Serie A games on there show. It is the greatest thing to happen to that channel!

Football- The Beautiful Game!

 

[Race Idiot]

It's stupid, he's trying to play a Chelsea formation.

1. Beckham isn't Makalele
2. Rooney isn't Damien duff/Robben
3. Owen isn't ****ing Drogba.
4. Lampard is just rubbish and doesn't deserve his position in the team at the moment.
5. WHY THE **** DOES HE BRING ON OWEN HARGREAVES, WHAT A USELESS CANADIAN ****.
5. Joe Cole isn't a natural wing player.
6. the defending that lead up to the goal was comical.

Oh and Northern Ireland deserved it.

I mean you wouldn't ask Ronaldo to play wide on the left would you? Noo.

Just reposting what I said here.

 

[livemusic]

So, who´s going from Europe already? Here in South America, Argentina and Brazil are qualified already, there´s two more spaces to be filled and the fifth place will play vs Australia to decide who´s going.

 

[Vasco]

Australia beat Solomon Islands 6-0 with their new coach Guus Hiddink. Guess that result is not really unexpected, but yeah. After Australia comes first in the Oceania table I believe they'll be playing 5th from the South American region.

 

[livemusic]

North America Zone is so weak, why get 4 teams from there? They should get one more team from South America and one more from Europe IMO.

 

[Touring Mars]

Very magnanimous of you, Famine 👍 Great result for the Scots... Kenny Miller for First Minister, that's what I say....

Shame Eire couldn't beat France (or even hold a draw) too...

 

[mr2-maniac]

Just home from the Northern Ireland match. What a great night. We ain't a great team by any stretch of the imagination but we still beat England. Sitting close to the box that the BBC commentators were in. Giving Ian Wright stick all night was nearly as good as winning!

 

[Dave A]

It's stupid, he's trying to play a Chelsea formation.

1. Beckham isn't Makalele
2. Rooney isn't Damien duff/Robben
3. Owen isn't ****ing Drogba.
4. Lampard is just rubbish and doesn't deserve his position in the team at the moment.
5. WHY THE **** DOES HE BRING ON OWEN HARGREAVES, WHAT A USELESS CANADIAN ****.
5. Joe Cole isn't a natural wing player.
6. the defending that lead up to the goal was comical.

Oh and Northern Ireland deserved it.

I mean you wouldn't ask Ronaldo to play wide on the left would you? Noo.

Most of this I'd agree with.

Beckham didn't play too bad, other than that, everyone else was crap.
Lampard is usually a very good player, like everyone lastnight, he was played wrong. Joe Cole is one dimensional, he's got skill but he hasn't got a great football brain, when he gets the ball, 99% of the time he see's red and his team mates turn invisible. Northern Ireland did deserve it, we playedmost attacks by passing to the wing and them crossing into the box, in the box we had a single player, and it was Owen who is pretty good at scoring goals, but he's far from the tallest player on the pitch. And to rely on Owen delivering from crosses isn't exactley a good plan. Sven has to go, he's an average manager who will provide average results at best, his stratergies lead a lot to be desired (did he even have a game plan last night?) and his substitution choices are dire at best. Go home Sven.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Imagine Stuart Pearce in charge of England, we just wouldnt lose. Thats who we need.

There was one point, No one knew where they were playing, Beckahm was looking at the Bench as if to Say WTF!?!?!

 

[Famine]

North America Zone is so weak, why get 4 teams from there? They should get one more team from South America and one more from Europe IMO.

Or a guaranteed Oceania spot. Which would be Australia all the time.

There's 3.5 spots for CONCACAF (North & Central America and the Caribbean). These spots have been taken by Mexico and the USA, with Costa Rica looking like they'll get the 3rd one. The 0.5 spot for 4th will be either Guatemala or Trinidad & Tobago.

Asia gets 4.5 spots. Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Iran have the 4 places sewn up. Uzbekistan or Bahrain will take the 0.5 place, depending on who wins after a 2-legged play off between the two.

The 0.5 CONCACAF place and the 0.5 Asia place teams face each other in a 2-legged play-off to determine which goes to the World Cup finals (this will probably be Guatemala vs. Uzbekistan).

South America gets 4.5 places. Argentina and Brazil are through. Ecuador and Paraguay are nearly there, but either could be overhauled by 5th place Uruguay who are 4/5 points down with only 6 left to get, or 6th & 7th placed Colombia and Chile, who are 6 points down. Chile are fighting a -4 goal difference though.

Oceania gets a half place. This is, again Australia.

The 0.5 South America place and the 0.5 Oceania place teams face each other in a 2-legged play-off to determine which goes to the World Cup finals (this will probably be Australia vs. Uruguay. Again).

Africa gets 5 places. There's 29 teams in 5 groups (home and away matches) and each group winner goes to the final. I have no idea who the likely teams are, though I'm aware Ghana are close for the first time. Edit: Group 1 will be Togo or Senegal, Group 2 is almost certain to be Ghana (at the expense of South Africa), Group 3 will be Cameroon or Cote d'Ivoire, Group 4 is finely poised between Angola, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, but Nigeria and Zimbabwe have only each other left to play, and Group 5 is Tunisia or Morocco.

That's 18 of the 32 places taken care of, with the host country (Germany) making 19. The remaining 13 places come from Europe. There's eight groups of 7/6 teams. The group winners each get a place (only Ukraine so far). The two highest-point-scoring group runners-up each get a place. The remaining six group runners-up are randomly drawn to play two-legged ties against each other, the winners of which get a finals place. Almost all of the groups have 2/3 likely teams, any of which could win or finish second and we won't know all of the group winners until the end of the very last game, in all likelihood.

 

[daan]

Yay!

It was true! I didn't dream it. Scotland in winning of game shock.

 

[livemusic]

The 0.5 South America place and the 0.5 Oceania place teams face each other in a 2-legged play-off to determine which goes to the World Cup finals (this will probably be Australia vs. Uruguay. Again).

Yeah, I was talking to Jared about this the other day and he wasn´t too happy to know Australia will probably get Uruguay again on the play-offs. I don´t think they'll stand a chance against Uruguay either, Australia would be better off versus Chile, or Colombia.

But it would be a shame not to have Uruguay on the Wolrd Cup too, so I hope they make it in the 4th place on the qualifyers.

 

[Race Idiot]

Imagine Stuart Pearce in charge of England, we just wouldnt lose. Thats who we need.

There was one point, No one knew where they were playing, Beckahm was looking at the Bench as if to Say WTF!?!?!

He's been managing Man city for like 4 months and you think he would be a decent england manager? I think he needs more experience at club level and in european football. I mean you'd like to think that someone who manages the England team would at least have experience in facing other European opposition.

 

[ExigeEvan]

'WE'RE NOT BRAZIL WE'RE NORTHEN IRELAND!'

Being Welsh do I even have any business being in here? Probably not seen as we suck, Hard!

 

[Famine]

Just a quick update, to cover the weekend's games. And to put some pwetty pictures in...

Notable absences from WC2006:
Scotland (again)
Senegal (despite a sterling performance in WC2002)
Cameroon
South Africa
Nigeria
Belgium (you can usually rely on them turning up and being dull)


The Uzbekistan/Bahrain 1st leg Asia Zone play-off (to determine who'd meet the North America Zone 4th place team) was ordered to be replayed. The tie is currently 1-1, with the 2nd leg scheduled for 12th October.

 

[Touring Mars]

Notable absences from WC2006:
Scotland (again).

Well, I'm not surprised, although very disappointed... 👎

I hope Ireland qualify, but they must beat Switzerland now and possibly without Duff... not easy.

 

[Famine]

Update to include today's matches!

Edit: Bahrain beat Uzbekistan on away goals in the Asian Zone play-off play-off. 1-1 in Uzbekistan, 0-0 in Bahrain.

 

[ExigeEvan]

Greece didn't make it. Brings more strength to the 'fluke' argument.

 

[Flerbizky]

And Denmark is OUT !....

Sux 2B us I guess

 

[ExigeEvan]

You're still better than us

 

[Famine]

More evictees from the World Cup 2006 House:

Denmark
Romania (!)
Russia
Austria
Bulgaria

 

[Race Idiot]

Notable moment in the England came.

"Garry Coleman comes off for Englands newest striker, a flagpole"

That game was much improved from the last three or so games.

 

[Famine]

Added a bit more information.

Trinidad & Tobago, by beating Mexico, edged Guatemala out of the play-off spot. Their match against Bahrain will guarantee another first-time attendee at the World Cup Finals.

Australia will, yes, play Uruguay.

 

[Touring Mars]

Ireland are out 👎

 

[Young_Warrior]

Man crouch is useless and its time for own to take a back seat also. It just doesnt seem to workthey should see how defoe and rooney get along.

 

[MagpieRacer]

.................You do watch the same football matches we do yeah?